Talent flows out of Google DeepMind and Thinking Machines Lab dominate 29 tracked AI researcher moves

Asked:

SELECT
  SEM_EXTRACT(content, 'researcher') AS researcher,
  SEM_EXTRACT(content, 'left lab') AS left_lab,
  SEM_EXTRACT(content, 'joined lab') AS joined_lab,
  SEM_EXTRACT(content, 'move month') AS move_month
FROM WEB_SEARCH(
  'AI researcher moves 2025',
  'scientists leaving OpenAI 2025',
  'Anthropic hires Google DeepMind 2025 2026',
  'frontier AI labs staff transitions 2025')
WHERE SEM_MATCH(content, 'named researcher moving between frontier labs, 2025+')

A web-derived, non-exhaustive sample of 29 named researcher and technical-leader moves between frontier AI labs and major AI research teams, 28 distinct researchers, January 2025 through September 2026 (current as of 2026-09-04). Only 12 of the 29 records are corroborated across at least two independent source domains; the other 17 are single-source leads that need further verification.

Where they left, where they landed

Ribbon width = number of tracked moves. Colour:all moves in the flow corroborated (≥2 independent domains)partly corroboratedsingle-source only. Hover a ribbon for the researchers behind it.

Moves by month

Bar height = moves reported that month.corroboratedsingle-source

Findings

Google DeepMind → Anthropic is the single largest flow: 5 moves, 3 of them corroborated — anthropic.com

Thinking Machines Lab lost 9 tracked people in total, 4 of them back to OpenAI in early 2026, all four corroborated — coinlive.com

Meta is both the biggest net recruiter (8 arrivals) and a growing source of departures, with 4 tracked exits to OpenAI and Thinking Machines Lab — observer.com

March 2026 is the busiest month (5 moves) but none of the five are corroborated; June 2026's 3 moves are all corroborated — startupfortune.com

All 29 tracked moves

Click a column header to sort. "Corroborated" = the extraction appeared on ≥2 independent source domains in this corpus; "single-source" = one domain. The linked source is the preferred one, not necessarily the only or strongest; source quality varies.

Researcher	Left	Joined	Month	Verification	Domains	Source

Method: semantic extraction from public web search results ("AI researcher moves 2025" and related queries), cleaned by hand — obvious false positives removed, lab names normalized (Google research references → Google DeepMind; Meta and Anthropic corporate variants unified). 29 move records, 28 researchers, 2025-01 to 2026-09, current as of 2026-09-04. Months are the reported or announced move month as extracted. Some rows cover big-tech AI research teams, not only standalone frontier-model labs. This is a non-exhaustive web sample, not a census; single-source rows are unverified leads. Aggregates come from precomputed flow, month and summary views.

This report was generated automatically by Keenable SELECT at a user's request, from publicly available web sources linked herein. Keenable does not review, verify, or endorse its contents and makes no representation as to accuracy, completeness, or timeliness; AI-based extraction may contain errors. Nothing in this report is investment, legal, financial, or other professional advice. All trademarks and referenced content remain the property of their respective owners; no affiliation or endorsement is implied. To report an error, rights concern, or request removal: legal@keenable.ai.